Words from a would-be author:
Alrighty peeps, it's time for another confession. And I know how everyone out there has been simply dying to find out what's going to happen next inside those strange little wooden confines... oh... you haven't... not even a little... damn so much for my ability to entice an audience.
Anywho I have a feeling that this confession has been one of the more... anticipated... so I'll stop my rambling now and get to the actual story.
And thank you all who have taken the time to review. 50 reviews so far... that's halfway to that magical three digit number :D
Disclaimer: No... it's mine... you hear me... it's... MINE! HEY... GIVE THAT BACK... crap...
Tales from the Confessional
By Shnoosh
Chapter 5 – Lust, Wrath or Prudence
"Forgive me father, for I have sinned."
"Uhm..." The middle-aged priest sounded surprised at the very least. "And... uhh... what do you need forgiveness for my..." He didn't really know how to address the one in the confessional. "Child...?" That word came out in a less than happy tone, and the priest frowned immediately after saying it.
"Well... quite a bit I suppose, but that's unimportant right now." The voice was calm and it even 'shrugged' audibly.
"What? You can't just come in here and ask for forgiveness without confessing your sins." Sternness rose in the voice of the priest, displaying both zeal and righteousness. He was not the sinner in here. "You have to say your sins out loud and repent, otherwise you might as well just leave again, and go back to where you came from."
"My sins..." The calm voice replied again. "Are numerous and ghastly, and I doubt that I shall live long enough to recite all the Hail Marys and All Fathers required for me to gain even the slightest bit of absolution." A little smirk crossed the speaker's lips. "Some of us are simply bound to stay sinners, father, and for someone like me, there will be no true redemption. Besides..." He leaned backwards and exhaled with a little sigh. "I don't believe you want to sit here for the rest of the day, and the night as well, listening to my tales."
"Then why are you here." The priest almost growled, he felt like he was being dragged around in this conversation by the insolent bastard on the other side. "State your business, or leave... Immediately!"
"I am here... father." The sinner leaned forward and folded his hands – almost as if he was praying. "Because there is one sin which I have to confess. It is not with my own consent, but I have no choice."
"Then get on with it." Patience was a virtue, which was not in high regard at this moment.
"As we both know, I have been living here for some time now." The words were spoken very evenly and with a pace which displeased the minister greatly. "During that time I have become acquainted with several people – some more than others."
"Yes?"
"One of those people came up to me a little while ago and made an offer..." He couldn't help smiling at his deliberate slow speech – annoying the self-righteous just never got old. "The sort of offer which... is hard to refuse."
"And?" The priest was getting really irritated now.
"Well... the offer was, that I would help him with a few of his... 'excursions'... if you catch my meaning."
Considering who was talking and the way he pronounced the word 'excursions', the priest could easily deduce who had made the offer. After all the inventor was one of the few who consorted with the demon. "And, what did that entail?"
"Nothing much actually... just keeping watch, making sure no one would walk in on him when he did... his thing. And for my troubles I would get paid... in pictures."
"Pictures...?" The tone immediately switched to curious.
"Yeah... pictures... fairly... indecent pictures I would say" Crimson eyes gained color and brightness as their owner was overcome by a mental image. An image of a young honey blonde girl taking a shower, soaping in her body, letting the water spill over her golden hair and milky white shoulders. Her eyes closed, her face tranquil, the bubbly droplets running slowly down the pearly skin of her neck, chest, stomach...
warm...
wet...
soft...
argh...
He quickly shook his head in order to get the intruding visions out of his mind again, 'dammit'. He hated how he couldn't keep them out of his head – it prevented him from staying focused – in fact she was beginning to prevent him from staying focused.
"And... uhm..." The priest asked. "About those pictures..."
"Well, let's just say that... they depicted some of the female occupants of this institution, in a way that they, and the authorities in here, would disapprove strongly of." He really tried to block out the visions which kept creeping in behind his eyes. The fact that it was completely dark within the confessional didn't help one single bit.
"I see..." The priest sounded thoughtful. "And your reason for confessing this particular sin is?"
He shifted in his seat a bit uncomfortably. "I kinda... ended up with the back against the wall... Actually I was in what could be called, severe danger of being uncovered by someone I did not want to be uncovered by."
"And?"
"I decided to take matters into my own hands. Since it seemed as if I could not prevent this thing from getting out in the open, I went to sister Kate and told her everything."
"Everything?" There was a bit of a surprise in the voice.
"Yes... all of it, about the pictures, about the way they were taken, and for what use they were intended. I wanted Kate to hear about it from me before she heard about it from anybody else – presumably that would get me through this whole affair with the least amount of damage to myself."
"And her reaction was?" The priest encouraged the confessioneer onwards.
"Not... pleasant. In fact I have never seen her scream and shout so much in my life before... and that's saying a lot. I thought she was going to explode... literally. She didn't however, and after calming down a bit she made a deal with me. The deal was: A – I would disclose who the photographer was so she could 'talk' to him. B – I would go to confession and confess this sin. And C – I would tell about all this to the offended parties – that is the girls in the pictures – and ask their forgiveness. If I didn't comply with all three I would be kicked out of the order immediately. So far I have done A, and I believe the person in question is within sister Kate's office at this moment, being interrogated about the whereabouts of the rest of the photographs. Being in here means that I am currently doing B, and that leaves C as the only thing left for me to do." The confessioneer let out a heavy breath, and slumped a bit in his seat – now he had done his part here.
"Uhm..." The priest said clearly not knowing how to respond. "That is... uh... reasonable I guess..." His voice seemed a bit fidgety. "I don't suppose there's anything more to confess then is there?"
"No that is all."
"Well then... do eh... ten All Fathers and fifty Hail Marys, and you will be forgiven." The priest seemed to want to end the confession now.
"You're not supposed to do some form of rite?"
"Oh yes... of course, how stupid of me to forget." The minister cleared his throat loudly. "God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." The absolution rite was spoken quite hurriedly.
"Thank you father." The confessioneer said slowly.
"Yes... ahem... see you another time?"
"Perhaps..."
The door to the confessional opened and out stepped a purple haired, crimson eyed demon sinner, who looked a bit like a boy in his early teens. It was a pretty good disguise, as his mind was definitely occupied with thoughts which were more appropriate for someone a bit older. His facial expression revealed nothing of what went on inside his head right now however. He quickly made it to the entrance of the chapel where there was a phone hanging – intended for emergencies. The exorcist pack with the portable phone he usually carried around, was in Rosette's custody right now, so he could easily get a hold of her. Chrno let out a little sigh, picked up the hook and dialed the number.
A female voice, answered at the other end. "Rosette here."
"Hi, it's me."
"Hi..." The voice answered expectantly. "How did it go?"
"Uhm..." Chrno thought about this for a moment. "I don't really know..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rosette asked with a slight disapproval in her voice, even though she probably didn't intend it.
"Well, I'm just not sure about..." At this moment Chrno saw the priest open the confessional door, and literally storm out of the chapel, he darted past the demon without even noticing him – Chrno smiled. "Wait... scratch that. I'm positive he's one of them."
"Uhh... what made you change your mind?"
"He just ran out of the chapel, as if he had the very hounds of hell snapping at his butt."
"Oh... that's the third one Chrno." Rosette didn't sound well at all... almost scared. "Who was it again?"
"Father Abrams."
"Father Abrams... ewww... to think that... I've been in some of his classes..." The exorcist held her breath a bit before continuing in a meek voice. "I think I'm gonna be sick, Chrno."
"Hey. Consider this: You got everything back from both father Mckenzie and father O'connelly – or should I say ex-fathers. You also made sure that they'll never set foot in the order again, and father Abrams will soon be heading the same way. Besides he was the last on the to-do list so there are no more suspects."
"Yeah... I'm just... it's just so... I feel all naked and..."
"So does the other girls, but you can't let that get that get to you right now. Are the others there too?"
"Yeah... Mary, Christie, Angela, Claire, Anna and all the others are just down the hall waiting..." There was a pause in her words "Chrno...?"
"Yeah?"
"I just... I want to say thank you for doing this."
"It's no problem."
"No... don't brush it aside like that... I really mean it. You have gone to every priest there is, and made them believe all those nasty things about you, and you've lied during confession, and you can't ever tell the real truth because then they might get to know about the recording device, and that could get me in so much trouble, and it must be so embarrassing for y..."
"Rosette!" Chrno broke in.
"Yeah?"
"You're rambling."
"Sorry... I know... I just want you to know that I really appre..."
"Stop it..." The sinner intervened. "It's jake... really... most of these priests didn't think too highly about me in the first place, and I could care less about their thoughts of me now. Furthermore I don't mind lying in the face of God, and as far as my so-called pride goes... well, I have no qualms about sacrificing that for you."
"..."
Chrno's little speech was met with the most thunderous silence he had ever heard in his life, coming from the other end of the phone – almost as if every sound was being sucked right in and quenched. It persisted for a few seconds before he decided to break it by speaking again.
"Rosette?"
"Yeah?"
"Abrams ran out of here a little while ago – presumably to get rid of the evidence – and you're not going to catch him red-handed by sitting around not speaking on the phone."
"Right..."
"And Rosette."
"Yeah?"
"Give 'im hell."
"I will..." From the tone of those words Chrno sensed that a smile had crossed her lips.
He waited for the click indicating that his contractor had put down the phone again. It came a bit later than he would have thought, as if she was slightly hesitant to hang up.
Poor Abrams... He was about to enter a world of hurt now – not that the demon felt much sympathy for the man.
The plan had worked perfectly, Mckenzie and O'Connelly had resigned for undisclosed reasons, and with the last 'buyer' out in the open it was now time for the mastermind behind the whole enterprise to be exposed, which could even mean showing the pictures to Kate who so far had been unaware of...
pictures...
Again Chrno was assaulted by a merciless stream of images depicting Rosette in the shower... bathing... washing... shav... He hit himself hard in his temple in an attempt to force them out of his head – it just wasn't right. They had started that fateful day where he had heard that confession. Or rather, he had heard up to the part where his survival instincts had forced him to run for cover out in the hall. Rosette had afterwards charged out of her room and only his demon strength (plus a 4-inch wooden door he had just managed to lock and bar in front of her) had enabled him to stop the rampaging girl. After he had opened the door again she had explained – eyes filled with tears of fury and speaking very incoherently – that elder actually had sold pictures of everything to the priest.
At that moment the demon's mind was torn between thoughts of slaughtering the entire priesthood and envisioning nude photographs of the girl in front of him – VERY confusing. Luckily he had been able to keep his head cool, and come up with the plan to root out the culprits. But the mental images of a showering Rosette had proven to be extremely persistent – always managing to come forth at the worst possible times – and they didn't seem inclined to leave him again anytime soon.
'Damn...'
Chrno looked at the little innocently-looking wooden construction inside the chapel – well if he should ever decide to give a genuine confession he would sure as hell not do it within the Magdalene Order.
That confessional was home to waaay too many things.
THE END
There you have it... a confession from our very own demon sinner, I hope it worked out to everyones satisfaction. At least I managed to sort out the little photography subplot – or I think I did. But you can as always leave me a review telling me what you think about the way I decided to resolve it.